According to one organization, there is a “father absence crisis in America.”(1) As of 2020, this organization contended that 25 percent of children have no father in the home. Underscoring the importance of a father’s presence, these children have a four times greater risk of poverty, seven times greater risk of teen pregnancy, are two times more likely to be obese and two times more likely to drop out of high school. A Christian worldview offers hope through spiritual fathers. Consider what life could be like for one who does not have a father in the home but who is humble, submitted, and teachable under fathers and other authority figures. One biblical example is Saul of Tarsus.
Saul was a zealous follower of Jehovah. He was raised in a biblically literate home and studied under one of the most respected theologians of the day—Gamaliel (Acts 5:34; 22:3).
Saul’s zeal for his faith, before being intercepted by Jesus, was expressed by his commitment to persecuting followers of Jesus. For Saul, such people were heretics who had turned from Judaism.
Saul led the persecution against Jesus’ disciples in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. And he was sent beyond Samaria to arrest followers of Jesus in the Syrian town of Damascus (approximately 220 miles north of Jerusalem, about a seven-day journey by foot).
As Saul neared Damascus, Jesus intercepted him (Acts 9:3–6). This unexpected and uninvited encounter with Jesus transformed his life. It turned him into a man without a people. For those who had sent him to persecute the New Testament ekklesia (church), Saul became a traitor. And for those in the ekklesia,(2) his conversion was viewed with skepticism. Consequently, Saul was a person without a friend except for one—Barnabas, a Levite from Cyprus and part of the Jewish diaspora (Acts 4:36). Barnabas was at Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost and became part of the first community of Christians.
After Saul’s conversion to Christianity, Barnabas met Saul and became his spiritual father in the faith. Barnabas spent time with Saul in Damascus and then accompanied him to Jerusalem to meet the original apostles and vouch for the genuineness of Saul’s conversion (Acts 9:27; Galatians 2:1).
About fourteen years after Saul’s encounter with Jesus, Saul was still in Damascus. He learned of a plot against his life by the Jews. The disciples helped him escape during the night (Acts 9:23–25). He went to Jerusalem, but the Jews there also sought to kill him. To protect him, his Christian brothers sent him back home to Tarsus (Acts 9:26–30), where he stayed for some time (Acts 9:30; 11:25–26). These are often referred to as his “silent years.” One of my spiritual fathers wrote of the “silent years” that Saul was probably in Tarsus for “seven or eight years or more.”(3) During this time, this zealous crusader appeared to be stuck in his hometown, perhaps bemoaning his fate, and wondering if the Lord would ever use him again.
The silent years ended when news of the Lord’s work in Antioch reached Jerusalem (Acts 11:22). Barnabas was sent by the church leaders to Antioch where he saw people being transformed by the grace of God. He recognized that help was needed so he searched for and found Saul. Together they supported the Holy Spirit’s work in Antioch for about a year.
After this, Barnabas and Saul were sent out from Antioch on the first apostolic mission. They went to Cyprus, Pamphylia, and Galatia and were used by the Holy Spirit to teach the truth about Jesus. In the process they made many disciples (Acts 14:21).
Saul was a man who lived submitted to spiritual fathers both before and after his encounter with Jesus. Before his conversion to Christianity, he persecuted the followers of Jesus under the authority of the Jewish religious leaders (Acts 9:1–2). And after his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road, Barnabas guided and directed him (Acts 9:27; 11:22, 30; 12:25; 13:1–2). Barnabas risked his own reputation to support God’s purpose for Saul. Saul was humble, submitted, and teachable. In their work together, Barnabas was the spiritual father even though Saul was the chief speaker (Acts 14:12).
Living under fathers (both biological and spiritual) is the most profound paradigm for a godly life. The enemy of this lifestyle is humanism, which is innate in the fallen nature of mankind. Therefore, all people inherently seek to be autonomous. By default, humans seek to live in the sin of self-commissioning. Self-commissioning means that one is living as an orphan disconnected from fathers. Spiritual orphans seek to do their own will according to their own ways.
To live submitted to another person is unnatural to fallen mankind who defaults to orphanity. Orphans do not readily submit to authority—any authority, including God. And they are not humble, submitted, and teachable.
In God’s universe, however, he is sovereign. To seek to live independently from him is foolish and will fail. As Lord of all, Jesus has authority over every person, whether or not they know it or acknowledge it. And Jesus delegates authority to mankind such as parents (biological fathers and mothers), spiritual parents, church leaders, teachers, managers, and civil leaders. Consequently, to live wisely in God’s universe, one must learn to live under authority, following the example of Saul of Tarsus.
To live like Saul, one must learn to live under authority. Living autonomously, disconnected from fathers and mothers, is not Christian. One cannot self-define life. One needs godly guidance from authority figures to help discern and align with God's will and ways.
Someone recently asked me how my life was shaped. I was ready for the question because I have reflected on my course in life for many years. I realized that my life was shaped by fathers—primarily my biological father and four spiritual fathers. My life is not the confluence of my own decisions, rather, my life was sovereignly orchestrated by the Holy Spirit through the guidance of fathers.
My fathers were not perfect men, but each one added to what the Holy Spirit was doing in and through me. My natural father and my spiritual fathers were the shaping tools used by the Holy Spirit to guide me into alignment with his will and ways.
And I was not a perfect son. Over the years, I have, from time to time, acted as an orphan. I have wept many tears repenting for my failures. Notwithstanding my imperfections or the imperfections of my fathers (and mothers), the Holy Spirit used them to guide me throughout life. For this, I am deeply grateful.
The only wise way to live in God’s universe is to be humble, submitted, and teachable before him and his delegated authority in our lives (Isaiah 66:2). This requires one to come to know the Lord and live empowered by the Holy Spirit—the way that Saul of Tarsus (the apostle Paul) lived. May we have the grace to so live.
